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How to Fatten Up Vocals

In audio terms, "fatness" refers to a punchy, dense sound as opposed to a weak and thin sound. Fat vocals provide presence and power in a mix. A few minor tweaks to your recording technique and a few quick and easy tricks during the mixing stage can really fatten up your vocals. The vocal audio signal has a distinct set of sonic characteristics. Typical digital audio workstations such as Pro Tools, Mixcraft and Audacity have the tools to modify these characteristics to make your vocals sound fat and proud.

Things You'll Need

  • Digital audio workstation
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Instructions

    • 1
      The pop shield reduces air-flow to the microphone, meaning you can sing louder.

      Fit a pop shield to the microphone stand, in front of the microphone. If you don't have a pop shield, bend a wire coat hanger into a figure 6 shape and wrap two or three pairs of pantyhose over the loop. Twist the stem around the microphone sound. The pantyhose forms a membrane which intercepts vocal pops. This barrier means you can sing closer to the microphone without creating an unwanted popping sound.

    • 2

      Open your preferred digital audio workstation. Click "File" and select "New Audio." Name this channel "Vocal 1." Audition the microphone to make sure the signal isn't clipping. If the volume units meter flashes, this means the signal is clipping and will distort on recording. Mitigate this by reducing the "Gain" dial slightly. Aim for a setting that is as loud as possible before distortion.

    • 3

      Hit "Record" and deliver your first take.

    • 4

      Open a second audio channel and name it "Vocal 2." Record a second, identical take. Use the first take as a guide and sing as close to the original as possible. Once recorded, save it.

    • 5

      Click on the first audio. This makes sure that subsequent edits are assigned to this channel only. For best results, apply effects to audio tracks individually.

    • 6

      Click "Effects" and select "Compression." This effect lets you reduce the dynamic spectrum of the vocal audio by cutting the peaks. Once you've cut the peaks, there is more headroom to increase the lowest volume level in the audio, enhancing the overall volume of the track.

    • 7

      Adjust the "Threshold" dial to set the level at which the compressor cuts the peaks. Set it low for an intense compression. The lower the compression the threshold, the more squashed and fat the vocals sound.

    • 8

      Adjust the "Ratio" threshold to determine how much compression is added. For example, a threshold of 1.4 means that for every decibel over the threshold, the threshold-breaching signal is cut by four times.

    • 9

      Click "Tools" and select "Equalization." Equalization allows you to enhance the low and mid frequencies while cutting the top frequencies to make a fatter, punchier vocal sound. Do so by sliding up the left and middle-left gain slider dials on the equalizer interface. If the vocal becomes "muddy" sounding, bring the bass frequencies down a little.

    • 10

      Click on "Vocal 2." Repeat the process applied to the first vocal to the second vocal track.

Recording Music

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